Adobe Media Encoder Create New Ingest Preset Bug on Silicon Mac

 Adobe is such an unnerving company. If you try to create a new Ingest Present for Premiere Pro on a Mac Silicon using the AME Silicon version, you're out of luck and you will go crazy trying to figure out why the stupid app refuses to create a new Ingest Preset.

If you click on Create New Ingest Preset, you will not go anywhere, the Preset won't be saved, and as a matter of facts, the window that opens is not even the correct one, it shows only a "Save As" button that doesn't save the Preset as Ingest Preset, but strictly as an Encoding Preset, unusable for Proxies creation.

It's a BUG Adobe. And it has not been fixed as of AME v 22.5.

To be able to create a new Ingest Preset, one has to use the INTEL version of AME. Accessible to launch under Creative Cloud app, AME, the three dots on the right, Open (Intel.)

Then with AME Intel running, on clicking Create new Ingest Preset you do get the proper window and the Save button, and it does save your preset as an Ingest Preset that works with Premiere.

That no one at Adobe bothered to check if this worked with the Silicon version is telling.

PS: AFTER you've created your first user Ingest Preset using AME Intel, for some reason AME Silicon allows you to create more and behaves as it should. Maddening.

Premiere Pro, Adobe Media Encoder - h264 Exports Problem, Image Tearing Up

  Mac mini M1, macOS Monterey 12.3.1, Premiere 22.5.

 Footage is h264 1080p 59.94. Editing Multicam 2 angles (same thing happens with non Multicam Clips btw.) Hardware acceleration is enabled (Same thing happens when Hardware Acceleration is turned off.) Exporting h264 VBR 1 pass, (the same thing happens with CBR.)

 Why on earth is Premiere Pro crapping up h264 exports? This is what I get in the exported file:

Last image before a "problem" cut, looks fine

First image after the cut, what the hell is this?

It goes on being total crap for 21 frames

Then for some reason it's back to normal at frame 22

 Why is this happening Adobe? What makes it even more infuriating is that it feels TOTALLY RANDOM. Why does it happens on this cut and not on another one? I'm not cutting at the very first frame or at the very last frame of a Multicam Clip.

 They are hundreds of other cuts exactly like this one in this piece. I'm far from fast cutting. The shots in this Sequence are between 2 and 19 seconds. All cuts are fine but for two that are severely damaged on export, like what you see in these picts.

 Note that nothing is visible on playback in the Program window at 1/2 res, it all looks good.

 Sequence is not rendered, but if I force render, the same thing happens. If I check use Previews for Export, the same thing happens.

 When I try to change the position of the cut, the crap goes away on the next export. But then some OTHER cut gets damaged that wasn't before! Totally at random, totally AGGRAVATING!!

 What a waste of time...

 This is painful!!! This should not be happening! Adobe FIX this abnormal behavior now!!!

--- I tried to Flatten the Multicam Clips on each side of the cut, and lo and behold, now I can SEE the tear in the image, but only if I go frame by frame over the cut. Playback is still just fine and shows absolutely nothing. Bizarrely, the tear appears on the second frame after the cut, not the first one like in the exports. If I stop the cursor over the teared image, it goes back to normal after about a couple of seconds!! What??! 

--- If I add an Adjustment Layer over the "problematic" cut, and play frame by frame, the tear is gone. But it's still in the export... Same thing if I overlap the clips a little.

--- If I do not use GPU, same thing happens.

--- If I use Software Only, same thing.

The only thing that works is to change the position of the cut. But since you cannot predict what will happen, you have to change the cut position, export the section with the cut, QC that, and if the image is still tearing up, adjust some more until it doesn't.

THAT"S NOT A WAY TO WORK !  THIS IS WRONG !  I WANT TO BE ABLE TO CUT ANYWHERE !

MAXIMUM AGGRAVATION ADOBE !

Premiere Pro Multicam Clip Not Showing Audio Waveform

 Premiere 22.5.0 on macOS Monterey.

One thing that has been plaguing Premiere for years: audio waveforms snafus. Last in a row of a long list of aggravation, Multicam Clips not showing any audio waveform in the Timeline.

In this example, the first Multicam Clip shows the waveform, the second does not:

Why? You'd rightfully ask. Well it's because of the way the Mulicam Clip is panned. I kid you not.

The fist Multicam Clip is panned as follow:

The second Multicam Clip is panned as follow:

Do you see the difference? Track A1 is not panned all the way to the left to -100%. It's at -98.8%.

And that is enough ladies and gentlemen to trip Premiere and cause it to not display waveforms in the Timeline for any Multicam Clip that's not panned 100% left or right.

macOS Monterey Finder Refuses To Sort Files By Name

 What on earth is going on with the Finder Apple? Sorting Files by name does not work properly?!?

Seriously, what is this mess?

macOS Monterey QuickLook Bug

 There is a bug with QuickLook on Monterey. QuickLook works by selecting a file and hitting Spacebar, which opens a previewn of the file so you can have a look at it right  in the Finder. Very useful to quickly scan through documents, videos etc.

On Monterey though, QuikLook can go bezark and instead of opening a preview version of the file, it just opens a dumb window with a small thumbnail and generic file info.

If this happens, open Activity Monitor, Search for "QuickLook", select all that apply. Example: QuickLookUIService (Finder), QuickLookUIService (Quicktime), QuickLookSatellite, quicklook, com.apple.quicklook.ThumbnailAgent, etc. With these selected, click on the Stop button to stop the selected processes.

Re-launching the Finder seems to be working as well for some users.

QuickLook should work fine again. Until next time... Repeat this workaround while Apple is working an a fix.

Avid ProTools and Media Composer Pricing 2022

 Here is an update from Avid in 2022. We love to hate Avid because we are forced to use Pro Tools and Media Composer, so each time they change things or jack up their prices we cringe.

As always I will only reference the month to month prices for each app as anything else is just a discount on the base price. And then we will compare 2022 offers to 2019 prices, fun!

Pro Tools is now declined in three version: Artist for $9.99/mo, Studio for $39.99/mo ($31.99 is a discount), and Flex for $99.99/mo.

Compared to 2019 prices: Free $0, Pro Tools ("vanilla") $34.99/mo, and Pro Tools Ultimate $84.99/mo. We are seeing an increase of $5 for the grown-up apps, and a new offer at $9.99 that replaces the useless Pro Tools Free... For a fee. Good riddance.

Artist is OK for simple stuff with a limited amount of tracks and features. Studio is fine for most workflows that don't involve conforming, or need "Advanced audio post toolset", or want to use expensive Avid Hardware, most of it. Little devils!

So for the Hollywood elites it's $99.99/mo now baby!

For non elites it's $39.99

And for peeps that don't know what Pro Tools is, they have to fork $9.99 for the privilege.

Avid also offers a $99.99/year Studio version to Students and Teachers.

Of course Avid is not doin that with Media Composer, just to mystify us even more.

MC still has the familiar free First version, MC "vanilla" for $34.99, and MC Ultimate for $74.99. Same prices as in 2019! MC Enterprise is still available for an undisclosed amount, which is the only way to get access to Nexis/Edge hardware and associated cloud collaboration.

So Avid is still milking audio post people to death by jacking-up prices on Pro Tools even more, while prices on Media Composer stay the same. Talk about a captive user base...

How To Prevent Free Download Manager To Launch At Startup

Free Download Manager is a handy little app, but it automatically launches by default when you start your computer which is annoying and unnecessary.

To turn FDM autostart off, do the following:

1. Click the Main Menu button on the upper left of the FDM window.

2. Click Preferences in the drop down menu.

3. Click on the Advanced tab, or scroll down to Advanced preferences.

4. Uncheck the box "Launch at startup (minimized)"

That's it!